Page 21 of Love Undercover
Trust me,his mind begged.
“Are you. . . FBI?”
He rolled his lips inward, feeling the vibration in his muscles as he clamped down on himself.
“You asked me about Greg,” she said slowly, her big eyes narrowing on his face.
Was he sweating? He felt like he was with the effort to keep his mouth shut.
“And I’d just been questioned by the FBI about him earlier in the day.”
The muscles around his eyes contracted, the only betrayal of his self-control.
And she leaned forward in response. “What exactly is my ex-boyfriend into?”
That, he had no issue keeping locked down. It had nothing to do with her trust. But the fact that she’d gotten to this point in her mental process gave him a hope that electrified his skin.
“You want someone to think you’ve kidnapped me.” The words were drawn out, stretched like warm molasses. “Are you working undercover?”
7
Tomato, Tomahto
Chase dropped his head, a sigh rushing out of him in obvious relief, and all Sadie’s mind focused on was how she could see rippling muscles along his shoulders and upper back through his thin t-shirt.
Crackers.
She forced her thoughts back to the conversation, back to what she’d just spoken aloud, and the way he’d suddenly relaxed after holding his body so tightly she thought he’d snap his bones.
He lifted his head, the first real smile on his face that she’d seen, and that full grin was the sexiest thing she’d probably ever seen in her life. Which was not what she should have been thinking about.
Even if he was an undercover FBI agent who acted to protect her, she still didn’t have any proof his story was true, and she’d be remiss if she didn’t verify it in some way.
She folded her arms over her chest. “Do you have a badge I could see?”
His face fell. “No.”
Every expression was so genuine and so sharp all of a sudden—more expressive than anything he’d shown in his face before—that she struggled to find a reason not to believe him.
Trunk, her rational mind said.Bound hands.GUN.
“It’s too dangerous to keep it around during these kinds of jobs.”
He didn’t break the intensity of their locked gazes while he waited for her to accept his answer. And she really wanted to. It made sense that he wouldn’t have a badge on hand. Someone could easily find it, expose him as an undercover agent, and possibly get him killed.
But it would go a long way in securing her trust right about now.
She bit her lip, and his eyes dropped briefly to her mouth. His Adam’s apple bobbed with a swallow, his gaze slowly rising to meet hers again.
The urge to speak, to fill the silence and break the tension, forced the words out because she didn’t trust what was happening here.
“Okay,” she said softly. “Say I believe you.”
The strain in the air deflated like a balloon with that one concession. Still, his gaze sharpened on her face like he knew she wanted to say more.
“What is the next step?” The question feathered up her throat, not nearly as strong as she’d hoped it would be.
He pushed away from the counter, a restless energy rippling off him. She didn’t miss how he glanced out the window over the sink like he was checking for something.
